Nik Gugger: «Verbot von Auslandadoptionen wird meiner G... https://www.nzz.ch/schweiz/ein-verbot-von-auslandadoptio...

1 of 21 19.06.25, 05:43

Nik Gugger: «Verbot von Auslandadoptionen wird meiner G... https://www.nzz.ch/schweiz/ein-verbot-von-auslandadoptio...

2 of 21 19.06.25, 05:43

Der Zug kurvt durchs grüne Gürbetal, von Bern nach Uetendorf, wo Nik Gugger,
55 Jahre alt, Nationalrat der EVP, aufgewachsen ist. «Siehe da, ich habe immer
Glück», sagt er, als sich die Wolken verziehen.

The Commission for the Investigation of Domestic Relinquishment and Adoption today presented its report 'Damage through Shame' to State Secretary Teun Struycken. This report describes the period 1956-1984 of domestic relinquishment and adoption in the Netherlands and its impact on all parties involved. 

The research report stirs up many emotions and memories for all those who had to give up their child, for children who were given up and for families who were involved. The report touches on very personal and painful experiences that have left deep scars for many and have irreversible, lifelong consequences. 

We will carefully study the committee's research report and also critically examine our own role. We want to learn from the past and be of significance to everyone who has had to deal with adoption.  

Does the report evoke something in you that you would like to discuss with us? Please feel free to contact us. We will be happy to make time for you. Send an email to reactie@fiom.nl and let us know which form of contact is most convenient for you.  

Until 1999, thousands of children came to Switzerland to be adopted by parents, sometimes under dubious circumstances. Nevertheless, the Federal Council's adoption ban is likely to fail – including because of two people directly affected.

Shortly :

• Thousands of children came to Switzerland through illegal practices between 1970 and 1999.
• The Legal Affairs Committee of the National Council rejects the adoption ban proposed by the Federal Council by a majority.
• Two directly affected National Council members are actively campaigning against the ban.

It could have been a rewarding deal for the asylum-plagued Justice Minister Beat Jans. Everyone agrees: The suffering of children adopted from abroad under questionable circumstances must not be repeated. According to the latest findings, between 1970 and 1999, several thousand children from abroad were brought to Switzerland for adoption through child trafficking, with forged documents, missing information about their origins, or through other illegal practices.

Chandigarh: Taking cognisance of a viral video, reportedly showing a couple employed as senior faculty in PGI beating up their 13-year-old adopted daughter, the PGI administration has filed a police complaint in the matter and asked for an explanation from the couple.

The video has reportedly been sent by a neighbour from Shimla, where the couple is currently on vacation.

The disturbing footage, which went viral among PGI staff, shows the father, a professor in the department of immunopathology, ruthlessly beating the girl with a wooden stick while the mother, a professor in experimental medicine, stands by without intervening.

Deeply concerned by the incident, the neighbour wrote to the PGI director and other faculty, expressing profound worry for the child's safety.

In a letter, a copy of which is with the TOI, the neighbour mentioned: "This was a regular practice for the last 10 years. Please check how your employees are treating their child. We deeply feel concerned for her safety and the students of such mentors." She wrote further: "I was also hurt while trying to protect the child as an elder sister. I hope you can help the child in some way or the other."

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska has evaded indictment as part of a criminal case relating to minors being forced into prostitution, although his name appeared multiple times in the casework, a joint investigation by independent media outlets IStories and Verstka revealed on Thursday.

The joint investigation relied on access to 25 files from the case, consisting of over 30 different crimes, which was opened against multiple defendants in the Leningrad region of northwestern Russia in 2019.

According to the investigation, a network which forced minors into prostitution operated from 2018 at the latest up until 2019, with young women being tricked into thinking they were participants in regional beauty contests via modelling agencies, dating sites and online forums.

The network prioritised the trafficking of 15- and 16-year-olds, looking for virgins. According to the investigation, some young women were forced to simulate the loss of virginity with syringes of red dye and by taking pills to cause burning and vaginal pain. The network also forged ID papers to change the women’s ages depending on their clients’ wishes.

Although the network’s clients were well-known, wealthy people, none was prosecuted, according to the investigation. The defendants were named as network members Svetlana Titova, Alexandra Shantyreva, Olga Goncharova, Maxim Nekozyrev and Anastasia Yakusheva.

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Anna Kim Riley, who was born in Daejeon in 1984 and adopted to the United States in 1985, is seen in this photo taken around the time of her adoption. In 2023, she was connected with a woman listed as her birth mother through Korea’s Adoption Central Management System, but a DNA test later confirmed they were not biologically related. Courtesy of Anna Kim Riley

By Hankookilbo

18 June 2025

The Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) unreservedly apologises for the historical forced adoption practices that separated mothers from their babies, and children from their families.

We acknowledge the profound trauma endured by women whose babies were forcibly taken and adopted out, recognising the deep and lasting emotional scars of these unjust practices. We sincerely apologise for the harm caused, honouring their strength and resilience while committing to truth, healing, and remembrance.

Through listening to the stories of people with lived experience we understand and recognise, the profound and continuing harm of these actions, including the deep loss, trauma, disempowerment, and grief experienced by mothers, children, fathers, grandparents, adoptive parents and siblings, families and their descendants.

The AASW recognises that these practices represented serious breaches of human rights and resulted in the loss of family connections, identity and history. We also acknowledge the vital responsibility of the social work profession to uphold and protect human rights in all areas of practice. This means maintaining ethical awareness, fostering critical reflection and challenging practices and systems that risk causing harm.

The historical ensemble near the Arc de Triomphe, designed 125 years ago by the Cantacuzino family to provide shelter for abandoned children and later transformed by the communist regime into an orphanage, will be renamed by the District 1 City Hall "Ecaterina's Cradle".

This will become a campus with the role of a socio-educational hub, structured into two distinct areas: one with open access to the public, intended for interaction and community activities, and another dedicated to therapy and support for vulnerable children and their families.

The initiative is part of a framework cooperation agreement concluded between the District 1 City Hall and the Hope and Homes for Children (HHC) Foundation, valid for a period of five years and approved by the Local Council on May 29.

"Ecaterina's Cradle" - a history marked by the suffering of abandoned children and philanthropy

Founded in 1897 by Irina Cantacuzino in memory of her kidnapped daughter Ecaterina, the ensemble carries the message of an illustration “from a mother without children, for children without a mother”. The main building, designed by architect Ion D. Berindey, is a monument of neo-Romanian architecture, where over time, thousands of orphaned children were cared for, the institution receiving international recognition, including in Geneva in 1927. After 1989, used as a children's institution, the building remained in use until 2003. Currently, it houses offices of the DGASPC and the Civil Status Directorate, which will, however, be relocated to fully return this space to the children and the community .

There are many errors in the adoption information integrated management system.
The Child Rights Protection Center under the Ministry of Health and Welfare
is aware of the management errors, but the inspection results are marked as ‘passed’.
This is one of the causes of corruption in the computerization of adoption records.

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A photo of Anna Kim Riley (40, Korean name Jang Won-sook), who was born in Daejeon in 1984 and adopted to the United States in 1985, at the time of her adoption. Anna met her biological mother in 2023 based on the records of the Child Rights Center’s Integrated Adoption Information Management System (ACMS), but the DNA test results showed that she was not related to Anna. Provided by Anna

Anna Kim Riley (40, Korean name Jang Won-sook), who was born in Daejeon and adopted to the United States, believed she had finally found her biological mother in 2023. In March of that year, she was able to contact her biological mother through the 'Adoption Information Management System (ACMS)' managed by the Child Rights Protection Agency under the Ministry of Health and Welfare. However, a genetic (DNA) test result showed that she was not the biological child.

"Marie (42) was 6 years old when she and her sister ended up in an institution in Croatia in 1988. Two years later, the two girls were adopted by a Belgian family. Since then, she never saw her mother again. Until the beginning of this month, when, with the help of Pieter Goedemé from the non-profit organization Bagage (Baggage), she arranged to meet her in the Croatian city of Zadar."